


This Rocky Road (Read: Pebbles all the way!)

by FujiDawn



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, M/M, Not linear, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 18:59:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15467904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujiDawn/pseuds/FujiDawn
Summary: SoulPairs are fated - some more than others.What do rocks have to do with this, you ask?Victor and Yuuri are about to find out. Read what these snippets of their life have to do with stones.





	This Rocky Road (Read: Pebbles all the way!)

**Author's Note:**

> Not Beta'ed, firstly because I don't have one, secondly because I'm not patient enough. English ist not my forst language, and I hate apostrophes. I seem to have forgotten how to use them correctly. Bear with me.

Soulmates are a strange thing. Around thirty percent of the worlds population are part of a pair, called Soulpair. The name is misleading: there is no scientific proof for the existing of 'souls', and some ten to fifteen percent of Soulpairs break up again after a period of trial and error with each other. Some Soulpairs are strictly platonic, some try for romance only to find that they are better off as friends. The term 'Soulmate' is therefore incorrect in light of the media using it to solely describe romantic relationships, leading to incorrect assumptions as to what a SoulPair is.  
The pairing process is not clear either. There is no tangible proof of being half of a Soulpair. Movies and books alike tend to put “first words” or some kind of marking on ones body to sell the idea of perfection when two Soulmates meet, and more often than not, live a happily ever after.  
In the real world though, such obvious helpers do not exist. Soulmates recognize each other purely by instinct. They _know_ , so to speak, that they are fated to each other, and the only tangible proof of their bond is an identical marking that will appear after a certain bond has formed between the pair. Most recorded cases define this as the Soulmark, which appears in similar places on both bodies, but not necessarily in the exact same place. Statistics indicate a causal relation between the placement on both bodies and the type of their relationship. So are platonic bonds found to have marks on vastly different places on the Mates' respective bodies, whereas romantic bonds tend to share the same place for a mark. Exceptions to this rule exist, however, so each bond is individual and not to be described by a perfect definition.  
Although most SoulPairs know that they are part of a bond purely by instinct, some need a more tangible proof of their relationship. It is not unheard of for Soulmates to copy the mating behaviour of animals: there is a recorded case of a young woman courting her Soulmate by fighting off anyone who came near, proving herself as a strong mate. Other cases include singing for each other. One spectacular case described a man who collected all kinds of blue an green items to gift to his mate, who, in turn collected all kinds of yellow items. They were wed in a yard full of colourful straws they had nicked while going clubbing.

Why, exactly, am I telling you this? Well, you see, there once was a pair of figure skaters, and this is their happily, but oh so rocky ever after.

 

“KATSUDON!”  
_Here we go again_ , Yuuri thought as he watched Yuri stomp through their living room.  
“Hi, Yura. What's up?”  
He got no verbal response. He almost got a stone to the forehead, though. Yuri seemed angry for Victor using him as a messenger once again.  
Yuuri actually didn't know how many of these little stones the blond had to carry home to him for his husband.  
“Tell your fucking husband that I am not a fucking carrier pigeon! He can deliver your gross Soulmate-crap himself or I will throw them through the window next time!”  
The japanese skaters' eyes lightened up as he turned the pebble in his hands, examining it, before warmth settled in his guts and he sat the stone down on the windowsill, where all the others sat.  
“Thank you for bringing it, Yura. Are you hungry?”  
Yuuri could ignore the anger directed at him – or really, Victor – knowing that the young blond teen was definitely more bark than bite and wouldn't dare hurt him seriously. They had way too much fun competing against each other. Yura would never hurt competition, because how could he then beat them fair and square?  
“Is Victor still at the rink?”  
“Mila's stubborn with her triples, and she told me she wanted to ask him about a quad, too. She's crazy.”  
“Mh. You're right, I do not remember you asking for help with the legendary quadruple axel last season.”  
“Shut up, Katsudon, and help me with these.”, Yura snapped, fishing for some eggs. Yuuri snickered as he grabbed a bowl, and together they made dinner.

 

“Yuu~uri! Come on, our reservation is in ten minutes!”  
“Coming! Look, Victor! Isn't it perfect?”  
“Oh, wow! It will fit right in next to the one I found last spring in Moscow!”  
“And the one you came home with after Yura won Skate Canada.”  
“Isn't the one you found in Barcelona there as well?”  
“Really? Oh, yes, I remember!”  
“... I think we need a bigger windowsill.”  
“Really?”, Yuuri deadpanned, letting the smooth, almost perfectly oval pebble sink into his pocket. “I think we need another place for them altogether.”

 

“Oi, old man! Beka sent me this for you. Why do you all think I want to be a part of your damn weird Soulmate-shit?”  
Scowling, Yura let the small package fall into Victors hands as he walked past to sit down on a bench and slip out of his shoes.  
Victor opened the package to find a reddish-brown stone in it, half as big as his hand.  
“Oh, this is wonderful! Yuuri will love it! Otabek is a saint.”  
Rolling his eyes while lacing his skates, Yura snorted.  
“I don't know why he bothers.”  
“Really, Yura, it's just a small gift for our anniversary. Phichit almost sent half of Bangkoks riverside last year.”  
“I don't want to know!”  
Victors laugh followed him onto the ice as he started warming up.  
“I do remember you giving me five kilogram of marble pebbles from the DIY store after that one small fight we had, Yura! You care!”  
“Shut up, geezer!”

 

“I remember meeting Yuuri for the first time. He was shy as a deer, a beauty on the ice, and irrevocably in love with the ten posters of Victor here which he had brought to the dorm two years earlier. Of course, there had been an additional five since then...”  
Laughter filled the hall, while Victor grinned, grossly in love and very much smitten with his husband as of that day, while said husband tried to melt into the flooring. Or hide under the table. Whatever came first.  
“Beside the framed picture of Victor that sat on his bedside – a classy shot of his junior-day Biellmann, shame that he's not as flexible as then, right, Yuuri? - sat a small rock, roughly around five centimeters long, smooth. It was black and had small clusters of white stone embedded in its surface. Yuuri told me that he'd had that pebble since he found it on Hasetsu Beach when he was ten. It was some kind of good luck charm...”  
While Phichit droned on about Yuuri and his addiction to Victor even before he really knew him, the newlyweds laced their hands together. Blue eyes found brown ones, and the russian smiled his adorable heart-shaped smile which had Yuuri melting inside from sheer happiness every time he was the reason for it.  
“I love you.”, Victor said, and leaned his forehead against Yuuris.  
“I love you just as much.”, Yuuri answered.  
In front of them, two smooth pebbles sat. One white, with streaks of black, one black, with clusters of white.

 

“Yuuri! Let's sleep together!”  
The energetic voice of his newly appointed coach broke the silence and had Yuuri rip all of his posters from the walls. The bare walls made him feel uncomfortable in his own room, but the presence of his idol somehow kept the strange feeling at bay.  
Yuuri had never talked to Victor before, but there was a feeling of closeness, a sense of recognition that he couldn't place. Where did it stem from? Had Yuuri watched so many of Victors programs, so many of his interviews that he seemed to know the man?  
The thought didn't fit. Unattainable media-Victor as shown in the magazines and videos he'd watched were a far cry from the tangible man living in his family's onsen. The silver haired man was honest – blunt and savage, though without malice – as well as easily excited. The onsen had never seen more life inside, and since Victor had arrived, Yuuri felt a sense of peace, as if there had been something missing in his life for all of his 23 years that he'd lived.  
Retreating footsteps brought him back to reality.  
How was he to survive this season? There were so many strange things happening all at once.  
(Yuuri didn't know how strange things would become a few days later, when Yuri Plisetsky would arrive in a storm of anger and juvenile pettiness.)

 

“I want you to be just Victor.”  
The brown eyes strayed back to the beach, to the sand and rocks scattered in between. The admission that Victor would become whatever he wanted – for _him_ – shook him to the core. Why would he do this? Never mind the implication that Yuuri was worth being someone else for him, but why did the russian feel the need to put on a show, when he himself seemed to be just what Yuuri wanted, what he needed?  
The Victor he had come to known in these few weeks was a far cry from the perfect, untouchable skater presented in the media, and instead, had proven to be the most easily excitable, childish and petty kid on the playground.  
Yuuri loved it.  
Yuuri loved _him_.  
Blinking, not even surprised by his own silent admission, the black haired man looked around, before stopping and reaching out.  
A warm hand collided with his just as he reached down to pick up the funny shaped pebble with the indent in one side.  
“Oh, sorry.”, Victor laughed, and withdrew his hand. “I thought I could keep it, but you seem to like it as well.”  
Yuuri grinned. “You take it. I already have a pebble from here at home.”  
Icy blue eyes widened, as Victor seemed to make some kind of connection.  
“You're collecting pebbles?”  
Anew, Yuuri found himself blinking.  
“... yes? Is that... strange?”  
But instead of dislike, he only saw mild bewilderment and oh so much excitement in the older man's face. Childlike wonder, almost, and some kind of hope shimmered in his eyes.  
“No, not at all! Actually, I'm collecting pebbles myself.”, he announced, and finally took hold of the strange pebble they both wanted to pick up before.  
“Would you... may I... Yuuri, can I see your pebbles?”  
The japanese nodded, not even considering denying his coach. They returned to the inn soon after, and Victor followed Yuuri into his room with silent feet and an unusual silent voice.  
The pebbles were kept in an old shoe box Yuuri had stored his first pebble in when he was ten. It was hidden beneath his bed, besides the many posters he had ripped of the walls some weeks prior. He carefully lifted the lid to reveal about a dozen stones in various shades and shapes, taking one out and showing it to the grey haired skater.  
“Found this one in Tokyo when I was there with school. I was fourteen. This one is from Detroit, Lake St. Clair. Here's one I found in Paris one time after the Trophée Eric Bompard.”, he told him, and Victor listened as if he'd never had heard more interesting information than this one.  
“What about that one?”, he asked, and pointed to the very first stone Yuuri had placed in his shoe-box.  
“I was ten, and I found it after I had decided to be a competing figure-skater, here in Hasetsu on the beach.”, Yuuri confessed quietly.  
He felt that Victor would treasure this information about himself. His heart urged him to do more though, and just as quietly, Yuuri took hold of the black pebble, haphazardly scattered with white inclusions, and offered it to Victor.  
“Would you take are of it for me?”, he asked, and somehow, the soft words fell from his lips like a proposal.  
Victor kissed him. Afterwards, they hushed to the banquet hall where the russian had set up camp, and Yuuri was asked to treasure one of Victors pebbles – a small white one with streaks of black. And somehow, suddenly, and without doing anything, they were a couple.

 

Victor presented him with a pebble from Barcelona's beach after their fight. Yuuri had one as well. Three weeks later, after Nationals, he arrived in St. Petersburg with another one from Tokyo, and one from Hasetsu.

 

Yuri Plisetsky hated pebbles. Still, in a corner of his small room at the dorm he kept a few dozen vastly different ones for one reason only: he never wanted to see another fight between Yuuri Katsuki and Victor Nikiforov, the most annoying perfect SoulPair that he had ever seen.  
Because they were family, and if he had to bury them in Pebbles for the happy shit to continue, so be it. No one in the male locker room – and female, because duh, gay skaters, the girls were awfully comfortable with sharing their space – could claim to have overlooked the matching Mark the pair sported, the misshapen blob with streaks of black and dots of white that appeared some time in January, after Yuuri had moved to Russia. It only became more detailed and prominent the longer the two were together.

 

“Adelie-Penguins gift their mates pebbles to build a nest with. A male who will not bring pebbles to a female will stand no chance of mating with said female.”  
Silence.  
Then, Yuuri and Victor both started to chuckle, which grew into full blown laughter just a few seconds later, when they both threw a look to their poor windowsill – overloaded with rocks and pebbles of all sizes and shapes from dozens of places all around the world.  
“That”, Victor howled, unable to hold back tears from laughing so hard, “explains everything.”

**Author's Note:**

> I would have loved to add more depth to this, but I couldn't really fathom how. I really just had that idea that Victor and Yuuri gifted each other pebbles like penguins, and that this was their proof of a Soulbond. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> If someone wants to make a fullblown long story out of it, you're welcome. Just tag me so I can read it later :P  
> Hope you had fun! Cheers, Fuji


End file.
